Fatal work injuries totaled 38 in 2023 for New Mexico, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that the number of work-related fatalities in New Mexico was down from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 63 in 2002 to a low of 31 in 2008. Nationwide, a total of 5,283 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2023, a 3.7-percent decrease from 5,486 in 2022, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

  

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Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, New Mexico, 2014–23

Year	Total
2014	53
2015	35
2016	41
2017	44
2018	43
2019	55
2020	37
2021	53
2022	57
2023	38
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• Transportation incidents (22) were the most frequent type of fatal event in New Mexico, accounting for 58 percent of all fatal work injuries in the state. Nationally the share was 37 percent. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

• Exposure to harmful substances or environments (5) and contact incidents (5) each accounted for 13 percent of New Mexico workplace fatalities; nationally the shares were 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and New Mexico, 2023

Event	United States	New Mexico
Transportation incidents	37	58
Exposure to harmful substances, environments	16	13
Contact incidents	15	13
All other	33	16
Note: Percents may not add to total due to rounding. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

• The transportation and warehousing sector had the highest number of fatalities with 11. (See table 2.)

• Transportation incidents resulted in 10 of the 11 construction sector fatalities.

• The truck transportation subsector accounted for five of the sector’s fatal workplace injuries.

• The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 16. (See table 3.)

• Driver/sales workers and truck drivers accounted for all 16 of the major group’s fatal workplace injuries.

• Wage and salary workers accounted for 100 percent of workplace fatalities in New Mexico. (See chart 1 and table 4.) Nationally, wage and salary workers comprised 83 percent of fatalities.

• Males accounted for 89 percent of the work-related fatalities in New Mexico and 91 percent nationally.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 58 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally. Workers 55 years and older accounted for 26 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2023, compared to 35 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

• White non-Hispanics accounted for 42 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 56 percent of work-related deaths.

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, is a count of all fatalities resulting from workplace injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. For technical information and definitions for the CFOI, see the national CFOI release Technical notes, the BLS Handbook of Methods, and the CFOI definitions.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the New Mexico Environment Department Occupational Health and Safety Bureau for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that provided source documents used to identify fatal work injuries nationally. See the national CFOI release Technical Notes for details on cooperating entities.

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